The most acceptable and lovely Characteristic of mankind
Which characteristic places you in a high rank in the Divine Presence? This is an important point. Everyone must ask and must know it, because we are trying to make our Lord, God Almighty, pleased with us. Which characteristic makes God Almighty pleased With us? It is humility (tawadu) that makes our Lord pleased with us. The first thing that made our Lord Almighty be angry with His creatures is the opposite of humility. What is that? Pride, the first sin appeared from pride.

The first one who raised his head and was rebellious to his Lord Almighty was Satan. The reason was that he claimed to be proud towards one of his Lord's creatures. God Almighty created Adam. Then Satan claimed to be above Adam, not to be beneath his rank, saying, "I am more important than this creature. How can You order me to make to prostate (sajdah) myself before him? I see that my station is higher than anyone else's, particularly the station of the one who has just been created. I fill every square foot on earth and in the heavens with prostration. I give You the highest respect while that one, the new one, has not even made one prostration to You. Yet You are saying that I must prostrate myself, I must give my highest respect to that one? I am the one who will never accept to prostrate to anyone except You," Satan said to God Almighty, seeing himself as being above every creature, and particularly over Adam. That was pride from him, so that the Divine anger or the Divine curse fell upon him.

Therefore, every prophet came to advise people that they should put aside pride. They should be humble, because pride makes your Lord angry with you and humility makes Him pleased with you. That wisdom is enough for everyone throughout his life. But it is not so easy to make your ego accept that, particularly as our ego always votes for Iblis, Satan, never voting for God Almighty. Isn't it so? Everyone knows it. Always for God? No! For everything that Satan does our ego says, "Alright. Yes this is correct, that is wrong." "We seek refuge in God from satan" (istighfar Allah).

Therefore, each prophet came with a Book and with commands (manffiuma), a law including other laws, as prophets came from the Lord. The last, the Seal of the Prophets (saws) also came with so many commands, bringing them to people in his time and up to the Last Day, so that if this world were to continue, his Message would cover every nation, even up to eternity. The summary or soul of all the commands that the Seal of the Prophets (saws) brought to the children of Adam is for what? To teach people how they can be humble servants.

In the Holy Qur'an and in the Divine Law (shariah), commands have been given to keep - 500 kinds of commands and good deeds that you may do out of respect to your Lord and as charity to His servants, because all commands consist either of respect to God Almighty or charities to His servants, which are at the same time most high respects to your Lord. Therefore, Islam is perfect because it brought people the highest respect to give to their Lord and, at the same time, it brought the children of Adam every kind of charity, good actions, and at the same time as you are doing or giving your charities, you are giving your highest respect to your Lord Almighty. If you look at Islam from this direction, you will find it perfect because it covers every charitable work and includes every respect, the highest respect, to your Lord. Yes, You can find in Islam every charity that you can think of and every kind of highest respect for your Lord can be found in Islam, as well.

Then there are also 800 prohibitions, prohibited actions, so from that direction, also, Islam is perfect because you can't find any evil, any wrongdoing or anything that harms people, without its being prohibited in Islam. Any harmful thing, no matter how simple or unknown or unthought of, Islam brings before people to see that this evil, even such a thing that you can't imagine but which harms you, either in your faith or in your health or in your thoughts, because our ego always allies with Satan when it comes to following prohibitions. The ego, the "I" likes the taste of bad things. Therefore, it generally conceals them and tries to show you that they are excellent. "What is wrong if you go to the pub? What is wrong with drinking wine and whiskey and spirits? Why are they prohibited when they give you so much enjoyment?"

That is the animal soul's defense, wanting to make things seem good, to present them as good to your ego. The Prophet (saws) said that when the Last Days approach, people will drink wine, but will give different names. They do not say "Wine," they say "whiskey," "champagne." They say, "This is vodka, this brandy," doing so much advertising, making so many beautiful looking bottles, saying, "This is Johnny Walker. You must be like this when you drink," doing so many things to cheat, to deceive people. Therefore, your ego always comes with Satan and conceals prohibited things, saying, "This may be good. Particularly in our community, in our time, you must use it. You must also put a bar in your house. It must be there, and every kind of bottle." I see some houses which are like a hotel. Yes, up to here with bottles of wine and whiskey. One thousand Satans are in them, sitting - sitting quietly, but when drinking, all of them appear.

Thus 800 things which are harmful physically or spiritually have all been prevented in Islam, so that no one can object concerning any of them that it gave benefit and was useful to people, but Islam prevented that. Therefore, Islam is perfect through its commands, and it is perfect through keeping people from harmful things. God Almighty honors us with each of the commands He gives. We said that there are 500 respects, highest respects, to God Almighty and also charity. Each one that you do, that you keep, gives you more honor. That is honor (karamah) and the prohibited things are for safety (himayah) - for the safety of humanity physically and spiritually. That is perfection. For this reason God Almighty said, "Oh My Prophet, beloved Muhammad, I have just completed your faith, your religion, your Islam, and I am pleased with whomever comes to Me with Islam" (see 5:4).

It is complete now. No one can imagine a religion more perfect than Islam even for the 20th century. Islam is perfect even up until the 121st century and beyond, Islam is perfect since God Almighty created the human being as a human being, not creating people as monkeys or apes. No. He created the human being as the human being from the beginning. Apes were created as apes. Monkeys were created as monkeys, but the human being was created as the human being. He gave the human being His form. Even if one hundred centuries more may pass, no one can think of a more perfect form either for men or for women.

Therefore, when God Almighty says that it is now complete, perfect, it is perfect. What is after the full moon? Islam has become the full moon. If you ask for something else after the full moon, you are going to find it waning. Therefore, people now are running. They are not looking at the full moon of Islam and they are running to find something, particularly old religions. Christianity or Judaism are trying to make themselves like the full moon, but it is impossible because they were before Islam and Islam came as a full moon. If anyone wants something after the full moon, he will find only deficiency. For this reason, God Almighty says, 'Who is the one who can bring something more perfect than what I brought to you, Oh Muhammad? Tell them that anyone who can do that may do it, may try. But no one can." And we are saying, as our Lord commands, "Then proclaim" (93: II) (fa-haddith), issuing a challenge.

Yes, come - Christians, come. Jews, come. Islam is the full moon. From any direction you may look, you can find it perfect. Don't look at its followers. No. Look at the full moon itself. Why are you accusing Islam because of the actions of its followers? Islam is perfect, but its followers are not perfect.

Now we shall come to the important point, humility. In summary, what is the main goal of all these commands and prohibitions? Why does God Almighty order all these commands and prohibitions? To make people humble servants, nothing else, because they are under His command.

God Almighty created Gabriel (as) the angel of prophethood, the messenger, as the most beautiful angel. Among angels you can't find anyone more beautiful than angel Gabriel (ordinarily you can't look at any of the angels; from their beauty you may fall down dead). He created Gabriel and Gabriel looked into the mirror of his Lord's Power (qudrah), looking at himself. Because of his beauty he has been called "peacock of the angels," (tawus al-malaikah), after the most beautiful and ornamented bird.

When Gabriel (as) saw that God Almighty had created him with such beauty and ornaments, he made two cycles of thanks to his Lord.

Each cycle lasted 20,000 years, two cycles or 40,000 years, praising his Lord. When he had finished, God Almighty said, "Oh My angel Gabriel, this is good praise from you to Me, yet its value is not as much as the value of two cycles from My beloved Muhammad's nation. Even if they pray two cycles very quickly, those two cycles from those servants are more valuable in My Divine Presence than the two cycles that you prayed during 40,000 years. Why? Because you prayed without My ordering you to do so. Without My command you prayed those two cycles, but those servants from the nation of My beloved Muhammad (saws) are praying from My command. They are keeping My order and praying, making themselves humble servants. That humility of theirs, their keeping My command, makes them humble servants to Me. They say, 'Our Lord is commanding us. We are His humble servants. We are praying the prescribed prayers.' That humbleness gives their prayer value. Their two cycles, because they are doing it out of humbleness, are more valuable in My Divine Presence."

Therefore, you can understand the reason why we have been given commands. Every command of God Almighty, that we keep, is to make us humble servants to Him. And for every prohibition, also, we say, "Our Lord has prohibited this. We must obey, we must be obedient servants to our Lord, keeping His order." This gives value to the children of Adam and all the Divine Laws, all Books, and all prophets, including the Seal of the Prophets, peace be upon them all, just came to teach people to be humble servants.

That is all. Any time your ego calls you to be rebellious to your Lord, that is disbelief, denial, ingratitude (kufr). It is a dishonor for you if you know that action makes you proud in the Divine Presence. The one who is proud in the Divine Presence, the one who is proud must be cast out of the Divine Presence just as Satan was cast out.

Therefore, the most acceptable and lovely characteristic of humanity is to be humble. All the prophets, peace be upon them all, just came to teach us how we can be humble servants. We are asking forgiveness for everything in which we are following our egos and leaving the Holy commands of our Lord, saying "I seek forgiveness" (istighfar Allah). We are pleased with our Lord's endless favors. We continuously say, "Praise belongs to God. Praise belongs to God and thanks" (al-hamd Allah; al-hamd Allah wa shukr Allah ).